SDHBA’s Newest State Representative, Jordan Hefner
I started the 2024 IBS trip a little earlier this year than I have in the past. I knew I wanted to be on-site Saturday morning to attend the State Reps meeting. We had a great conversation in that meeting revolving around the duties of the state representatives and how to best bring the information that NAHB shares with us to the general membership in our state. From this conversation, it was brought forward for each state to produce a State Representative newsletter. This is in process right now and I hope to be rolling out my first one in May of 2024. My hope after this meeting is that this short newsletter will be a way for me to have more communication with members around the state as well as getting the national message out to our local organizations.
Throughout IBS, there are quite a few meetings that happen before and during the show that the general membership doesn’t typically hear about. Of course, we have working groups, subcommittees, committee meetings, educational events, and fun after-hours happy hours. But there is also quite a bit of general NAHB business during this meeting. I sat in on both sessions of the NAHB corporate board meeting while in Las Vegas, and it was quite an eye-opener to the sheer size and reach of our organization. I got to hear quite a lot of information at these meetings including a deeper dive into how NAHB plans to implement the three-year strategic plan that we just went through in 2023, the general performance of NAHB, and its subsidiaries. As well as a portion of NAHB that I didn’t even know existed until this year, the Home Building Industry Disaster Relief Fund (HBIDRF). This fund is a 501(C) (3) charitable organization run by the NAHB and was established to assist areas affected by disaster to facilitate the rebuilding of communities. This fund has been assisting in Maui after the storms in 2023. Throughout my time at NAHB events, it never ceases to amaze me the reach that we have across the nation, and I am always looking forward to hearing more about the things that we can and have accomplished.
The building materials subcommittee was held prior to IBS this year via Zoom call; this was due to time and space constraints during the week of the event. We had discussions on the continued rise in material cost in 2023 with certain materials, including drywall, concrete ready-mix ingredients, copper, and steel. The general outlook on softwood lumber, as well as many of the other materials we follow, has leveled off in comparison to what we have seen in the last 3-5 years. Our construction liability, risk management, and building materials committee has been focused on a few key areas in the past few years. Alternative building concepts such as 3D printed homes were a big topic again this year, we had John Peavey from the Home Innovation Research lab, which is an independent subsidiary of NAHB come in to share the results of the testing they have been running on these 3D printed Concrete wall structures. This is an ongoing project that they have been working on, and they have been able to identify some key areas that need to be addressed as the market for these products grows. The first and biggest is that these companies need to have a standardized process for cities and municipalities to build codes around the product. Overall, it is a very intriguing process.
Another of our main focuses in the last few meetings has been a form in the contractors’ general liability insurance form. We received an update from David Humphreys from Carson Law Group out of Jackson, MS, on this, as he is working on gathering information on construction defect claims with insurance carriers My biggest takeaway from the NAHB Construction Safety and Health meeting was that we now have an NAHB job site safety App! This app was just rolled out after the Construction safety and health meeting at IBS and brings access to your fingertips of our Handbook, safety videos and NAHB safety news. The app is free to download on both IOS and Android platforms and is available in English and Spanish.
The construction safety and health committee has been working on videos for the past few years that are on this app that can be used in employee training and general jobsite safety.
The Young Professionals meeting was quite eventful this meeting. We had quite a few special guests that stopped in to continue the conversation on how NAHB can attract new membership, retain its growing Young professional presence, and bring the association into a new era. We spoke with our new chairman, Carl Harris, our third vice chairman, Bill Owens, and our CEO, Jim Tobin, along with some other staff members, including the chief operating officer, Paul Lopez. We had a good update regarding our partnership with Manual, which is a digital wellness platform specifically built for young men; this is designed and promoted to the young professional age group and is meant to help improve different areas in life, including mental health, personal finance, purpose, Nutrition and sleep along with other areas.
As we were made aware of this program last year, we have had some great discussions about the young professional mindset and the challenges that go along with running your own business or being in management of the business that you are in, the challenges that come with being in the professional world as you are raising young children. The meeting of the members was where we were able to hear the economic outlook directly from Dr. Rob Dietz, NAHB’s chief economist. The leadership council is a great place to hear updates from the senior officers, staff and other committees along with voting on new resolutions and doing other NAHB business. The Best of IBS judging for 2024 was in the Best of Windows and Doors category, another new opportunity that I took advantage of this year. It is always really eye-opening to see the new products out on the national market. Pella Windows took home the prize this year for a new installation system on its windows. Their booth included an area where you could go install a window with the new system yourself. I volunteered at the membership hub, where nonmembers could sign up to be NAHB members while at the show. I also participated in a new leadership round table on Sunday. It was a good way to bring new people together with some long-term members and senior officers to discuss how to get the most out of the IBS experience.
The week of IBS always goes fast, but 2024 was the busiest and most exciting of the NAHB events I have ever participated in. I always look forward to our events, and I feel like our group from South Dakota really showed up and made the most of the week!
Jordan Hefner
SDHBA State Representative
https://bit.ly/April2024SDHBAnutsandbolts
